18 Days ➳ Riley McDonough/ Before You Exit Fanfic

12.

March 13th // 5th day

R I L E Y

I simply stood there frozen as the deafening steady beep of the heart monitor rang in my ears with a haunting message that there really was no more life left in her.

Then, after a few more moments of trying to process what was happening, I finally came to my senses.

I bolted out the door and began running down the hall in search of a doctor.

"Help! Please, help me!" I yelled at a doctor who had just passed by.

"What is it?" he asked, slightly startled.

"My girlfriend... Jade... Ms. Days... whatever." It was extremely hard to spill the words out while my heart was beating a hundred times a second and my breathing was so ragged that it probably wouldn't even be considered as breathing. "The heart monitor! It went flat! Please help me."

I could feel tears running down my face as the doctor's expression turned urgent and he left me there in the hallway, most likely headed to Jade's hospital room. He was running, and he was running fast.

About twenty feet separated me from Jade's room, yet I could still hear the steady beep of the heart monitor in my head, like it was taunting me.

Day five, and her heart had stopped. Well, whatever's left of her heart anyway.

Some people's hearts break emotionally because they entrusted it to someone who they thought could take care of it, but Jade was different. Her heart was damaged physically and if anyone attempted to fix it, it would probably just make it worse. She entrusted her heart to me, and I did everything I could to keep it whole, despite the fact that it gets weaker everyday, along with her.

Then, a voice broke through my thoughts and I swear to God I was hearing things, but I ran back to her room anyway, trying my best to be hopeful, because it was her voice that I had heard.

Maybe they were able to revive her.

With that thought in mind, I stumbled back into the room she'd been assigned to, and there she was on her bed. She still didn't look very alive, but the rhythmic sounds from the heart monitor reassured me that she wasn't gone anymore.

Standing in the corner of the room was the doctor I had called, along with a nurse, who had brought Jade back to life.

"Hi Ri," Jade said, giving me a weak smile as she held out her hand, which I took once I got close enough to her. "Why are you crying?"

"Because I thought you freaking died!" I cried. "I was about to freaking die, okay? I thought you were gone."

The doctor and the nurse packed up some equipment that they'd most likely used on Jade and exited the room, probably sensing that I wanted to talk to her alone.

"Riley, would you please calm down," Jade said, wiping a few tears from my eyes using her other hand which wasn't holding onto mine. It was the hand with all the tubes and needles sticking out of it and I noticed her flinch when some of them tugged at her skin.

"I almost lost you today, and you expect me to calm down?"

She was silent for a moment as she rubbed the back of my hand with her thumb. And, in that moment, everything was calm. It almost felt like Jade didn't nearly die and my heart rate was beginning to slow down, which was a relief.

"Are you calm now?" Jade asked, looking at me with big worried eyes and it didn't make sense because I was supposed to be worried about her, not the other way around.

"Kind of."

"Good. Now, could you reach the remote for me please?"

I couldn't resist the urge to roll my eyes at her. Only Jade could almost die and tell me to calm down just so that I could hand her the TV remote. She drives me completely insane sometimes.

As soon as I handed her the remote, she flipped through the channels for a decent amount of time before finally landing on one, then looking at me with a big smile on her face. It was still weak, but it was big.

"You can't be serious," I groaned. "Your heart literally stopped beating, and you had to be revived, and now you just expect me to watch Spongebob with you? Are you crazy!?"

"Oh, come on, Ri. Don't pretend that it isn't your favorite cartoon ever."

I folded my arms across my chest and tried my best to stay mad at her, but it was nearly impossible as she pouted at me from her bed. "Look, you almost died, oka—"

"Well, I'm livin' like Larry."

"You did not just do that."

"Do what?" she replied, batting her eyelashes innocently.

"You did not just quote Spongebob."

"Oh, but I did."

I brought my hand up to squeeze the bridge of my nose to ease a headache that I could feel coming. This day was turning out to be a rollercoaster for me. If anything else happens, they might have to send me to a hospital as well. A mental hospital to be exact because I could feel myself losing it every passing minute that I was exposed to such nonsense.

"Don't stress yourself out too much," Jade said, scooting to the side a bit and motioning for me to sit with her as she adjusted the elevation settings on her hospital bed. "Your face is going pale from overthinking and you look like you're about to pass out. I'm not even kidding."

I walked towards her, but I didn't sit down. I just held her hand as I stared down at her and she looked genuinely happy yet tired at the same time.

The moment I saw the bags under her eyes was the moment that the pressure hit me again. If she almost died today, then she could possibly die any day. The doctor may have given her eighteen, but that didn't mean that she would live through all of them.

I was running out of time quicker than I'd thought.

~

a/n: all of u were freaking out in the last chapter so here is a new one and jade is still alive don't worry. I wasn't about to end this with just 12 chapters.

but this chapter sucked ew

anyway i hoped u enjoyed this and may u have a good day/night wherever u are and whatever u're gonna do. love you!